Philip Hammond was greeted by a protest of around 70 students last Friday (Photo: Simon Rawlings)

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has told students in Surrey that allowing gay couples to marry would be like sanctioning incest.

The Conservative MP made the comments on Friday evening just hours after the government published its Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill during a visit to the University of London Royal Holloway’s Egham campus in Surrey.

Mr Hammond is the university’s local MP and had been invited to give a speech about British security and defence; however, his arrival was met with around 70 students chanting “gay, straight, black or white, marriage is a civil right.”

But on Friday, the senior cabinet minister, who had agreed to briefly meet with students Joe Rayment and Jack Saffery-Rowe used more contentious language.

Mr Rayment told PinkNews.co.uk that Mr Hammond said he was “very concerned” with the reform and that he believed gay couples would attempt to take religious groups to court if they refused to provide them with a marriage ceremony.

Mr Rayment challenged Mr Hammond on the fact that the Anglican Church to which he belongs had in the past altered its position on marriage, the MP responded: “yes, but that wasn’t yesterday”.

When the students asked why the MP believed the government should retain a ban on same-sex marriages, he responded by likening the current ban on equal marriage to incest, where it is illegal for two siblings to enter into wedlock.

When asked by PinkNews.co.uk to clarify the remarks concerning incest and why he mentioned the word, Mr Hammond personally emailed PinkNews.co.uk: “The discussion ranged very widely and was not limited to same sex relationships.”

MPs will vote on the second reading of the government’s Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill on 5 February – although Mr Hammond revealed to the students that he would not be in the country when it is expected to take place.